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Dozens of protesters – including members of indigenous communities and young activists – stormed the headquarters on Tuesday where the second day of COP30 negotiations was taking place in Belém and clashed with security guards to demand climate measures and forest protection. Shouting angrily, protesters demanded access to the blue zone of the United Nations climate summit, where thousands of delegates from countries around the world are attending the annual event held for the first time in the heart of the Amazon, Brazil.
Some waved flags with slogans calling for land rights or carried signs that said, “Our land is not for sale.” “We cannot eat the money,” Gilmar, an indigenous leader from the Tupinamba community near the lower Tapajós River, told Reuters. “We want our lands to be free from agribusiness, oil exploration, illegal mining and illegal logging.”
The protesters were immediately blocked by United Nations security guards, who manage security in the area, where there were some clashes and access was closed. At least one security guard was injured.
“We wanted to invade the place precisely to demonstrate which cities should participate in this event,” Helen Cristine, of Juntos, a youth movement of the PSOL party, told Amazon media Sumaúma. “We believe that COP30 does not represent indigenous peoples. The organization is for businessmen. Oil exploration in the Amazon delta is destroying the environment,” he added.
